I need the camera for work - most of the shots are of speakers to our faculty so lighting conditions are indoor, not too bright. There will be other portrait shots and some 'action' shots that won't have much action. Not too exciting but I want the best shots as they are for a professional publication.

IS the D70 overkill? I know that the low light (it's not that dark,mind you) might be a problem for the 8800, but how concerned should I be?

What would you base a decision on? Sensor? MPs? Long term value? Ease of use?

Other factors: Will be getting same extras for each i.e. external flash, extra battery, etc. so camera body is only real difference. Also, it should be noted that the ability to change lenses with the D70is not an option as there is not money in the budget for extra lenses at this time.

Thanks for the help. I'm anxious to get a camera and am very confused.

I taught for 15 years in a community college. Several times a year, speakers came in for professional development days. Sometimes I took pictures of them, most recently with my Fuji S7000. Now, the Fuji was criticized by some for image noise, but I think it had good low light performance for a prosumer camera. Images at ISO 400 and 800 were better than images at those ISO settingsof many more expensive cameras.

To make a long story short, it was hard to get non-blurry images of the speakers without using a flash.Using a flash is not appreciated by most colleagues.

I would get a DSLR for your school. Consider also the Pentax *ist DS. You can get the camera body alone without the kit lens. Use the money saved to get 28-200 lens. That should get you all the zoom you will need unless you're at the back of the stadium at a huge graduation ceremony.